OLTL: The Revolution Left At The Gate

[Alane Sue]

http://www.tvmediainsights.com/2012/01/the-revolution-left-at-the-starting-gate-in-week-one/

Based on the lackluster overnights, it was a given new ABC talker The
Revolution would not impress once the Live Plus Same ratings were
released. The Revolution opened with a mere 1.68 million viewers for
the week of January 16 according to Nielsen, which is down by 37 percent
from year-ago occupant One Life to Live (2.64 million for the week of
1/24/11). Erosion was even worse among target female demos with The
Revolution off from One Live to Live by 43 percent in women 25-54 (1.4
rating/8 share to 0.8/ 4), 40 percent in women 18-49 (1.0/ 6 to 0.6/ 3)
and 40 percent among women 18-34 (0.5/ 3 to 0.3/ 2). Yes, this is worse
than The Chew’s debut week compared to All My Children.

As a basis of comparison, take a look at The Revolution versus recent
entry The Chew, also on ABC, and The Talk on CBS, which had its largest
audience since the week of January 28, 2011:

-Total Viewers:
The Chew (ABC): 2.44, The Talk (CBS): 2.39, The Revolution (ABC): 1.68

-Women 25-54:
The Talk (CBS): 1.1/ 6, The Chew (ABC): 1.0/ 6, The Revolution (ABC): 0.8/ 4

-Women 18-49:
The Talk (CBS): 0.9/ 5, The Chew (ABC): 0.7/ 5, The Revolution (ABC): 0.6/ 3

-Women 18-34:
The Chew (ABC): 0.5/ 3, The Talk (CBS): 0.4/ 3, The Revolution (ABC): 0.3/ 2

ABC’s The View stood head and should above this trio, of course, with
3.67 million viewers, a 1.4/ 8 in women 25-54 and a 1.0/ 6 among women
18-49. The moral of the story: ABC should have left well enough alone.

[Mike]

> The Revolution opened with a mere 1.68 million viewers for
> the week of January 16 according to Nielsen, which is down by 37 percent
> from year-ago occupant One Life to Live (2.64 million for the week of
> 1/24/11).  Erosion was even worse among target female demos with The
> Revolution off from One Live to Live by 43 percent in women 25-54 (1.4
> rating/8 share to 0.8/ 4), 40 percent in women 18-49 (1.0/ 6 to 0.6/ 3)
> and 40 percent among women 18-34 (0.5/ 3 to 0.3/ 2).

Well, sadly, when ABC canceled the soaps, Brian Frons told Susan Lucci
that the new "lifestyle shows" will be 40 percent cheaper to produce
than the soaps. So, using that logic, if The Revolution's ratings are
roughly 40 percent less than OLTL's, then ABC, while not exactly
winning, at least isn't losing.

But, are the local affiliates the real losers in this one? Whenever
I'd watch AMC I'd notice there were a lot of local ads, at least
compared to watching, say, prime-time shows. I assume this was the
case with other markets (ABC probably had spots designated where
affiliates could drop in their local ads). Local ads are obviously
very important to stations; it's money just for them. If there are
suddenly fewer eyeballs watching those local ads in the spots AMC and
OLTL used to air, how long before the advertisers start offering the
channels less money for them, and then the affiliates begin losing
revenue?

What killed the primetime Jay Leno Show experiment a couple of years
ago wasn't the low ratings the show itself got; NBC could live with
those because a talk show is so much cheaper to produce than a drama
(sound familiar?). No, the low ratings for Leno resulted in poor lead-
ins for the local news, and the affiliates got quite angry, some
threatened to bail, and NBC scrapped the experiment. For broadcast
networks, keeping affiliates happy is very important; simply put,
without them, the networks' shows don't go out.

So I wonder how the affiliates feel about the loss in ratings.

Mike

[Alane Sue]

I don't know how it works in daytime. But in primetime I know that the
networks get in trouble on the advertising front if they guarantee a
certain number of viewers to national advertisers, and then the show
doesn't deliver. Advertisers then get some kind of compensation package,
even if it's just free or reduced ads elsewhere.

No matter how cheap a talk show is to produce compared to a drama, at
some point, low ratings are bound to hurt the bottom line in one way or
the other.

Alane

[Seth J. Bookey]

I have never really understood how advertising works, because no matter what shows I watch in the sme time slots,
I feel like I ALWAYS see a lot of the same commercials. They talk about the coveted demographic of young women
18-49, and yet I see ads all the time, day and night, for Colonial Penn and incontinencewear and denture creams.
Someone said that they toss those other demos in to "cover their bases" so frankly, I really cannot figure out the
meaning of ANYTHING anymore when it comes to ad dollars and why I see that damned Colonial Penn commercial in
every time slot! Except when I watch Telemundo!

I also don't quite understand the network-affiliate relationship. I recall that Port Charles did not do well since
many affiliates did not pick it up. I live in NYC so the local channels for ABC/NBC/FOX/CBS carry all the shows
daytime and primetime that the networks want them to show (i.e., these are flagship stations).

The only thing that makes any sense at all is that if a commercials is show enough times, it stays in your head
whether you want it or not. Whether I will ever buy the product or not.

One thing I noticed while transferring my DVR'd soaps to VHS--ABC shows a HELL of a lot of commercials for its own
shows. So I wonder if that's because they are losing advertisers or simply because they own a lot of the shows
they produce? One thing I do know is that when I started watching ATWT in 2001 when I got SoapNet (which freed up
my VCR for the 2 pm hour), I wound up checking out some CBS shows because I was seeing CBS shows advertised on
CBS. So, the fewer hours I spend watching ABC, the less likely I will probably watch ABC shows. For example, this
coming summer, the prime-time shows I watch on ABC will be in repeats. I will only watch GH daytimes. So, the ten
hours a week I watched AMC and OLTL are ten hours I will no longer watch--and SoapNet is going off the air. So...
even if there IS a show I might want to watch on ABC, there's a good chance I simply won't see three months of
commercials for it like I did for Revenge this past summer on ABC and SoapNet.

One thing I will definitely NOT miss are the insipid commercials for the Spew and the Revulsion.

It will be interesting to see how committed ABC is to these new shows. I mean, it might actually be possible for
GH to survive if Frank V is able to cut down costs and the ratings go up with the OLTL crossover stunt.

--Seth
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seth J. Bookey
seth...@panix.com

[Char]

I have not (nor plan) to watch the Revolution. I assumed it would be a
copy of "Doctors" which airs 3:00 pm in my area. I used to watch
'Doctors' until it added that exercise/weight loss woman and another
female doctor, which I feel pretty much ruined the show.




char